9/5/16 – Weekly Digital Marketing News Roundup

Is a big Google search update happening? Chatter thinks so.

Search Engine Land and other blogs are reporting that there’s been a Google algorithm update that’s impacting the core ranking algorithm and local pack. Chatter from SEOs indicate that it’s a Penguin algorithm update, which is focused on filtering out spammy websites. Algorithm updates happen on a daily and weekly basis – some more impactful than others – but as long as a website implements best practices, rankings shouldn’t be significantly impacted.

Search Giant Baidu Gives a Peek at its Latest Work on Artificial Intelligence

During Baudu’s annual conference Thursday in Beijing, the search giant announced news on the autonomous vehicle front, saying it had won clearance from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its cars there. It also signed a partnership with U.S. chip-maker Nvidia to work on self-driving cars together.

Facebook Vertical Video Ads Just Went Live and Are Evidently Producing Great Results

Facebook’s vertical videos went live on Friday and are apparently already doing better than square videos. Although it is still very early in the life of vertical videos, the CEO of Laundry Service, who’s first vertical video launched at 7 a.m. that Friday, says they are already noticing that CPM are 3 times less expensive than those on square videos.